Doki Doki Destiny
by MyEpic
Summary: 50 years in the future the world as we know it finally comes to an end. Chris has been given a second chance at life but in a certain literature club. How is he still alive? Why would someone put him in the world of a game from 50 years in the past?
1. Chapter 1

The year is 20-68. World war three finally seems to be coming to a close, but it hasn't been what you'd think. There were no tanks, solders, or bombs to be seen; this was a war between god and goddess. People from around the world stay clung to their screens, anxiously awaiting the outcome. No countries dare send their arms, for they would be severely outmatched.

They've exchanged blow after blow for years, often leaving destruction in their wake. Now, they both looked like they're hurting pretty badly. In a last-ditch attempt, they both launched as high as they could go before plummeting with such speed and force that the resulting explosion was sure to at least wipe out an entire continent along with them.

Waiting for my impending doom, I hang my head in shame. This war happened because of me, after all. I see the light engulf my body and it is torn to shreds. I am gone.

* * *

My name is Chris Light. The year is unknown, since I cannot tell for how long I have been here. I find myself alone, surrounded by darkness, floating in an empty world. It almost reminds me of the things Monika used to tell me about where she used to be...

Anyway, I hope with all my heart someone can hear me, even though I cannot speak. Please, if you can, give me something! A world to live in, someone to talk to, anything really!

…

I think I'm going insane in this void. It's not like anybody could be able to hear my thoughts anyway…

* * *

I wake up. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I have a body. My vision is blurry, my ears are ringing, and my body feels like it's on fire. It seems I am having trouble using the senses I have regained.

Once my vision focuses I can see that I'm sitting at a desk you would see at a school. Looking around the room confirms that, yes, I am in a classroom. It's just me and four girls in this room, but they don't seem to have noticed my presence yet. They look strangely familiar, but I've never seen them before.

"Excuse me"

Busted. One of them must have spotted me while I was distracted. I look up to see a girl with long brown hair, dreamy green eyes, and a white bow in her hair. It was undeniable, this was Monika.

Fuck, I'm in Dan's demented game! Someone was listening to my thoughts after all, but why did they have to put me here? Was it because I was accidentally reminded of her in the void? This place was hell for everyone who isn't her, and even she thought it was hell! Wait, she only did what she did in an attempt to be with someone real, remember? She knew everyone was just scripted. I'm not scripted… right? I'm real. Then maybe-

"Excuse me," she said slightly louder this time.

"Ah! Sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment there haha…" I say kind of nervously.

"What are you doing here? You know it's club time, don't you?"

"I…"

What do I say? It doesn't seem like she recognizes me at all. Does she know what's going on here? Should I tell her?

"…don't really know…"

Monika looks at me as a slightly confused, and possibly skeptical, look dawns her face. I can't blame her; most people aren't genuinely unsure of how they are where they are. I must have awoken here during their club meeting, which if I'm remembering correctly, happens after classes have finished. The real question is, how have they not noticed my presence before I woke up? Was I here the whole time or did I just pop into their reality?

"I should probably get going then," I eventually say.

I really need to go calm down to address these thoughts. I get up from the desk and turn to leave but before I do I just have to ask the question that's been on my mind since the beginning of this conversation.

"Hey, weird question, but, do you recognize me from anywhere?"

She pauses to think for a second, then says "No… sorry." I knew it.

"Ah… that's okay, I'm kind of new here after all."

Why did I say that? I have nothing to confirm that I am actually new to the school aside from the fact that she doesn't know me. I internally sigh at myself as I walk out the door to the classroom. Before I forget though, I make a mental note of the room that they were in, since it must be their club room. Room 329, got it.

On my way out of the school I stop by the bathroom to have a look in the mirrors. Looking at myself it became clear that I had the same body I used to, except I seemed a bit younger and shorter than I remember. I have my black hair in a slightly messy comb over style, I'm kind of thin but average looking, I look about 5'4, and I must be wearing the students' uniform since it looks kind of like what Monika was wearing.

I walk down the street, just me and the overflowing river of nervous thoughts that come with being on your own in an alien environment. I have been around the world in my travels, but either I haven't been to this town, or this place wasn't modelled after any town in particular. Listening in on random peoples' conversations, it would seem like the majority of this town are English speakers, yet this town maintains a very Japanese look, even down to the writing on the various signs. Do the people here all know both languages? If so, why? Language is a very complex thing, and knowing two would just be inefficient for most people.

After a few hours of exploring the town I eventually stumble upon the town's park. It looks like a lovely place to spend some time just chilling. It has some beautiful trees and greenery and this nice winding river going through the middle to a waterfall on a cliff overlooking a bigger city. I decide to sit down on the bench near the view and collect my thoughts.

I try to remember what happened in the game. I think Monika said she knew the main character from a class she'd previously had with him, so that must mean that I am not taking his place in the story. I'm sure Sayori saw our awkward conversation. She would have been concerned enough to but in, right? If I'm not taking his place that also means I won't have a house in this world, or if I did, I wouldn't have anyone to lead me to it because nobody knows who I am. I am homeless right now.

I also don't really have any money or belongings either besides this phone… Wait a minute. A phone! I'm saved! I must have some kind of contact with whomever my family is in this world stored inside here. Luckily, the phone is adequately charged and doesn't have a password. I quickly navigate to my contacts, and… nothing. Okay, maybe they use a separate chat app… nope, this phone only has the default apps on it. Who buys a phone but doesn't put any stuff on it? At least It'll show me the date and time. It is currently 8PM on September 20th, 2017.

I lay down on the bench. Fortunately, this town was not cruel enough to have installed those benches that are purposefully uncomfortable to sit in. I guess this park bench is my home for now. As I try to go to sleep I shiver. It isn't cold enough to get frost bite or anything, but it's cold enough to be a nuisance. I should probably try to join the club tomorrow. After all, they're the only ones I know in this world. Without them, I would truly be alone.


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up to the sounds of chirping birds. Yup, I'm still here. Opening my eyes, I see this beautiful morning light shine over the city below. It's almost surreal.

I decide to check the time. It is 7AM on Thursday. Most schools begin classes at 8 or 9, right? I should probably get going if I want to catch whatever breakfast they serve before class. What if that's not a thing here? What if I have to pay for it? What if the lunches cost money? I honestly don't even want to think about that possibility.

As I approach the school I came from yesterday, I start to notice it's grandeur. This place looks a lot more like a college campus than just a high school. I better stop by their main office and get a map or something. I also need to find out what classes I have here.

I enter the office. There is a secretary there who looks busy, but not busy enough to answer a student's questions.

"Hey, could I get a copy of my school schedule? I kinda lost mine."

…

"Hey…"

…

"Hello?"

No response. She doesn't seem like she's even noticed my presence. I wait a little while longer before I go behind the desk. I tap her on the shoulder. Nothing. _I'm sorry_ , I say in my mind for what I'm about to do. I slap her across the face, then I flinch. I would, never, do something like this. To my surprise, there was no retaliation. In fact, nothing really happened at all. She was still just typing away, as if nothing ever happened. I do it again, harder this time. Nothing. Not even any mark or sign that I'd slapped her in the first place.

I then hear the door handle turn. Instinctively, I dive under the desk of the other secretary who hadn't arrived yet. I hope they didn't notice me, though it's unlikely they would since the secretary still doesn't know I'm here, even after all that.

"Hey, Ms. Randren," I hear Monika's voice say.

"Hey Monika, what's up?" the secretary responds.

"I'm looking for someone. I didn't catch their name though. He looks kind of like-"

Monika then goes on to describe someone that looks like me. Why would she be looking for me? More importantly, why didn't Ms. Randren respond to me when I asked my question? She can't be scripted, because the conversation they're having right now is about me. There's no way this happened in the original game… wait, I'm not in the original game. Maybe the script rewrites itself for them to sustain their belief in this world… and the game wouldn't have to rewrite the script for my interactions on my own because I'm not supposed to exist. I'm like a ghost that only Monika can see, that she believes is real. Does that mean I only become real to the rest of the world when I'm around her? What about the other girls? Would they be able to see me on their own?

"Alright, I'll tell him to go find you if I see him."

"Thanks Ms. Randren," Monika says on her way out.

Crap. I was so lost in thought that I didn't hear what she wanted from me. Does she know what's going on after all? I stand up and return to the front of the desks to try one last time.

"Ms. Randren?"

Still nothing. I look around for a copy of the school bell schedule and a map. Everything that looks like an official school paper is written in Japanese though. I guess should have expected that. I leave the office. So much for breakfast…

I find myself walking toward the only classroom I know, their clubroom. On my way, a room catches my eye. I stop at an empty classroom where the lights are dimmed and the door is left open. Inside, they've pulled a clever trick where instead of normal glass windows they appear to have bezel-less 4K HDR TVs in their place that are displaying stars in space with some fiery border animations. Other than that the walls are pretty empty. There is a single desk in the center of the room. This must be what Monika called her space classroom.

I sit down at the desk. I don't really know why the school would have a room like this in the first place. It seems kind of impractical. It's the perfect place for me to hang out until club time though. Now that I know the script isn't acknowledging my existence when it doesn't have to, it's safe to assume I don't actually have any classes. I just have to wait for them to be over.

* * *

I think classes are over now. It is now 3PM, and I've seen Monika, Natsuki, Yuri, and Sayori all pass by this room in the direction of the clubroom. I'm starting to get really hungry, but I can't really do anything about that right now. Once the hallway quiets down I make my way out of the space classroom.

As I open the door to the clubroom Monika turns around to see who's there.

"Hey, you're back!" she says cheerfully, "You forgot your stuff yesterday."

Now that I've calmed my mind, I am immediately struck by how beautiful she is. She's basically completely out of my league. Now's not the time to be thinking like that though.

"My stuff?"

I look over to where Monika gestured, and sure enough, there's a school bag sitting near where I was yesterday. I guess it wasn't one of theirs after all.

"Is that not yours?"

"No, no your right. It looks like it's mine," I say hoping her judgement was right, "That isn't the only reason I came back though."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I wanted to join your club!"

As I say this, the other girl's heads perk up. They must have been listening in on our conversation. At least they acknowledged my presence.

"Really? You'd join the club?!" Sayori says unable to contain her excitement.

I'm surprised. I wasn't expecting this level of enthusiasm, but I guess new members are hard to come by when the club's topic is something like literature. It makes me wonder how long the club existed before the main character got there.

"Of course!"

"Well," Sayori says, pausing for a second to read Monika's expression for her approval, "Welcome to the club!"

"I'm Sayori and this is Yuri, the smartest in the club."

"D-Don't say things like that…" Yuri says, embarrassment quickly growing on her face.

Once she calms down, she eventually says "What's your name?"

"I'm Chris."

"It's a pleasure meeting you."

I look around the for the voice I hadn't heard yet. Natsuki looks annoyed that I'll be joining. She slowly walks up to us.

"What? If you want to say something, just say it."

As I say this I start to notice this overwhelming sense of déjà vu that's been building for a while now. Were these the lines from the original script? Am I replacing the main character after all?

Natsuki turns toward Monika and says "Really, you invited a boy? Way to kill the atmosphere."

"Natsuki, he wanted to join on his own. I didn't push him to," Monika says in my defense.

"Hmph…"

"You can just ignore her when she gets moody," Sayori whispers to me.

While the girls have their backs turned on the rest of the room, the desks silently shuffle around. Eventually they get into a position where six of them are put together front and center in the room to make one long desk. It's hard to do, but I try my best to keep my facial expression from indicating anything strange is happening behind them.

Monika glances around the room to see that the desks have moved. She looks a little startled by this, but quickly regains her composure. I guess she isn't the one behind the magical self-moving desks after all.

"Come have a seat at the table, Chris," Monika says.

The girls sit down so that there is one seat next to Monika and one seat next to Sayori. I choose to sit by Monika.

"So, what made you consider the literature club?"

Wrong choice. Obviously I can't tell her the real reason I'm here, and since I'm not supposed to know Sayori, so I can't use her as an excuse either. They didn't know I was here yesterday until Monika started talking to me though, so maybe I can pretend like I was here the whole time yesterday?

"Well you guys seemed like you were having a lot of fun here yesterday, and I'm kinda new to the school, and well um…" I trail off nervously.

"That's okay! Don't feel embarrassed! We'll make sure you feel right at home okay?" Monika reassures.

As they talk amongst themselves, I begin to get lost in thought again. Why do these conversations feel so familiar? Am I really going to replace the main character or is the script just really unoriginal in the way it rewrites itself? It's even taken to having the desks move themselves to make this narrative work.

"Chris, what kinds of things do you like to read?" I barely hear Yuri say.

I really hope they stop asking me questions. I read from time to time, but there's no way they would know the books or even the writers who wrote them. Would they accuse me of making it all up? Maybe I can just be really broad instead of pointing to specific examples.

"I usually read things where there's a heavy focus on character building and the interaction between characters. I find it really interesting what inspired writers can do with existing characters," I say after pausing to think for a bit, "What about you, Yuri?"

Yuri's demeanor quickly shifts from shy and timid to confident and knowledgeable as she explains what types of books she likes to read. She is clearly passionate about her reading.

After a while the conversation dies down and everyone goes back to doing whatever they were doing before I got here. I guess we're not doing the poem writing thing after all.

I end up following Sayori back to the desk she was originally working at. It caught my interest because she was drawing something. It looks like of poster for a festival of some sort.

"What are you drawing Sayori?"

"I'm getting started on drawing our posters for the Festival," she says.

"The Festival?"

That's right, their school has a festival that they were going to use to promote their club. Unfortunately, they never got around to actually doing that though. If I can find out when the festival is, then I'll know where I am in the game.

"When's the Festival?"

"It's next next Monday."

"Next next Monday? You mean like a week from now?"

"Mmhm! We still need to decide what we're going to do for it though."

So I'm here the week before the game's story starts. Interesting.

After a little bit longer Monika decides to call the meeting to a close. The other girls gathered their things and left one by one until it was just me helping her cleanup for tomorrows classes.

"You know you don't have to stay and help me clean, right?" Monika eventually says.

"It's alright, I don't really have anywhere to be or anything to be doing right now…"

As I say this I am reminded of my situation outside of school. I didn't really get much sleep last night and I haven't had anything to eat since I got here. I could ask her for help, but there's no way she would take me in. I've only just met her yesterday. That would be ridiculous... I still have to try though. I'd have to tell someone eventually.

"Hey, Monika?"

"Yeah?"

"I know we just met and this is a lot to ask, but… " I say as I take a breath to calm myself, "Can I stay with at your place for a while?"

"Why?" she asks, turning to look at me.

Now I've cornered myself. I've got to tell her the truth here or I'll be screwed either way.

"I don't have anywhere to stay."

"You're homeless?"

"Yeah."

…

"You don't look homeless…" she says. It doesn't look like she believes me.

She's right, I do still look too good to be homeless. I can't really tell her that I just popped into her reality though.

"It might be hard to believe, but I promise it's true. I understand if you don't want to though. We only just met." I say dejectedly. I kind of knew this would happen though.

"I'll think about it." she eventually says.

We return the room to the state it was originally in and say our goodbyes for the day. I take the bag that I had claimed since nobody else recognized it as theirs today. There's no real identifying information about who's it actually is. It has a few empty notebooks, pencils, and other basic school supplies inside. No food or money though, that's a shame.

On my way back to my park bench I begin to shiver. It's a bit colder outside than it was yesterday. I still think I'll be okay, but that'll only get worse once It gets dark. Even though I didn't really do all that much today I still feel exhausted. At least I feel a little safer knowing that no one was actually able to see me sleeping on that bench last night.

By only 6PM I can barely stay awake. I decide to surrender to my senses and just try to go to sleep, but that's easier said than done. How much longer will I be able to go on like this?


	3. Chapter 3

Today I decide not to go to school until it's time for the club. Sitting alone in that room all day was super boring. I'm not sure how Monika said she was going to do that forever.

I take out my phone to look on the app store in hopes of finding something to pass the time, only to find that it has gone missing. Where could I have misplaced it this time? I have always been terrible at keeping track of this kind of stuff. It couldn't be in the clubroom, me and Monika made sure that it was as if we were never there for the morning classes. I sigh at myself. It's gone forever now.

That leaves me with just this bag of school supplies to entertain myself with. I guess I'll help Sayori draw the posters for the festival. The more posters we have, the better the turnout, right? I close my eyes and try to visualize the poster I watched Sayori draw.

As I'm drawing the posters it begins to slowly get even colder. This hunger, the bite of the cold… they're things I haven't felt in a long time now. Some time in my 30s I no longer felt the need to eat, drink, or even breathe. As the seasons would change, I noticed I had become immune to the temperature of the environment around me. As long as I wasn't frozen in a cube of ice or getting burned by the sun I was just fine. As the years went on, my looks would defy my age. It was like I had stopped aging entirely. I had effectively become immune to a death by natural causes, but I knew I wasn't immortal. One bullet to the head and I would be gone, just like anyone else.

As much as I wish for that miracle to happen again, I shouldn't bet my life on it. I pack up the posters I was drawing and head for the school.

I get to the school a couple minutes before the club meeting begun yesterday. As I walk up to the clubroom, I'm surprised to see that Yuri, Natsuki, and Sayori were already there. It looks like they are setting up a party of some sort.

"Hey, what's up? Why are you all here early?" I ask in hopes I had the right time to begin with.

"We're getting ready for Monika's surprise birthday party!" Sayori says excitedly. "I'm happy you got here early. We're kinda running out of time. Can you go distract Monika for a couple minutes?"

"Sure, where is she at right now?"

"She has a class just down the hall. Look for room 318," Yuri says.

"Consider her distracted," I say confidently, even though I'm not really sure what I'll distract her with.

I walk down the hall, looking at each room number to find 318. Luckily, I'm able to find it just in time for the final bell to ring. Looking through the flood of students leaving the room, I spot Monika.

"Hey Monika!"

"Oh, hey Chris. You look kind of pale, are you alright?" she asks with a concerned look.

Looking to my hands and arms for confirmation, I definitely look a lot paler than I did on Wednesday. It must be because of how cold it is outside.

"Well, you know… what I said yesterday was true."

"What? You mean when you said you were h-"

"Shhh…" I interject, "Let's keep that between us, okay?"

"Why?"

"Because I…" I say shyly, "I wouldn't want anyone to think less of me because of this…"

Even though none of the other students around me could even react properly to this new information since I don't exist to them, I don't want the other club members to find out. I want to make a good impression with them, and since Monika will probably find out the true nature of me and this world sooner or later I don't have to worry about what she thinks of it. She was the only one I could turn to.

"I don't think anyone would think less of you because of your living situation, Chris," Monika says giving me a reassuring hug, "but your secret's safe with me."

"Thanks, Monika."

…

"We should probably get going, we're already late for the club," Monika says.

"Yeah, you're right."

While we're walking to the clubroom, Monika speaks up once more. "By the way, you forgot your phone in the clubroom yesterday."

"I did?" I could have sworn that place was spotless when I left.

"Yeah." She then takes out my phone from her pocket and hands it to me. How did she get my phone anyway? We left at the same time didn't we?

"Thanks…"

I decide it's better to be oblivious than to continue questioning her intentions. I have to trust her. I can't let my anxiousness get in the way.

Reentering the clubroom, I immediately notice we are alone. Oh yeah, there's a surprise party going on here; they must be hiding. I had completely forgotten my objective while we were talking. Lucky for them, our conversation looks to have spared them enough time to finish setting up.

"Happy Birthday Monika!" the girls say as they jump up from behind the table.

Taking a closer look at what they've done, it looks like they've pushed several desks together to form one big table like yesterday. This time though, they put a table cloth over the table and have some paper plates and plastic utensils laid out on it. There's also a delicious looking cake in the center with some freshly made tea next to it.

"Thanks guys, but, you really didn't have to do all this-"

"Of course we did!" Sayori interrupts Monika excitedly, "You're the best club president ever!"

"And we won't take no for an answer," Natsuki states proudly.

As we sit down at the table, Natsuki begins to pass out the cake. It's absolutely delicious. Ignoring the massive amount of hunger I've been feeling lately, It's probably the best thing I've tasted in years. How could it even be this good? Looks like the others agree; they've all got their mouths full. It doesn't take long for the whole thing to disappear between the five of us.

"That cake was awesome Natsuki!" Sayori says happily.

We all agree. I had forgotten that Natsuki was described as a baker to behold in the game.

After the festivities end the rest of the day is uneventful. I try my best to keep from falling asleep. It's much warmer in here than it is outside. Like yesterday, I help Monika clean up the room just to keep myself from having to go out in the cold, but eventually that time comes to a close. We say our goodbyes for the day and I head out into the cold.

I was being generous in my assessments before, but right now it is absolutely freezing out here! I am somehow able make it back to my home, the park bench, but I am not doing so good. I'm so cold. I'm so tired. I'm still hungry. How could this get any worse?

After about an hour it begins to snow. That's how. I curl up on the bench and close my eyes. For the second time, I feel like this night may be my last. I just hope I don't end up in that void again.


	4. Chapter 4

I begin to wake up again. It isn't cold anymore. I've been resting on something warm. Opening my eyes, I see Monika watching over me. I slowly put the pieces together to find that Monika must have carried me to her home, and that my head was resting on her lap.

"Good morning, Chris." She says looking slightly relieved that I have awoken.

Embarrassment takes over and I try to sit up, only to be stopped by the weight of her arm resting across my chest. She wasn't even applying any pressure! Am I really that weak right now? I muster up the strength to speak. I need answers.

"Monika? Where am I? What happened?" I ask nervously.

"We're at my house. I couldn't just leave you out in the snow after you asked for my help…" She says solemnly, "I would feel terrible if my doubts cost you your life…"

"How did you find me?"

"Ahaha, well… Don't be mad, okay?" She pauses for a second before continuing, "After you told me about your situation on Thursday I took your phone and installed a tracker on it. I just had to know if you were actually homeless. I'm sorry…"

"No, It's okay. Like I said, I wouldn't believe me either… and if it wasn't for that I wouldn't be here," I say trying to make her feel better about her actions.

…

"Why did you stay in the park when it started snowing?" she asks breaking the silence, "Why didn't you just go to like a shop or something?"

"Monika… this is kind of embarrassing, but I can't read any of the signs here. I only know English."

She was right though. Even if where I had entered wasn't really a public place, nobody would give me a hard time about it because they can't see me. I guess it had never crossed my mind that you don't really need permission to enter if you don't exist. Still, I don't want to be invading on people's privacy.

Monika looks at me with a confused look on her face. "How did you become a student here then?"

I should have known this question was coming. I quickly make up something believable, "I was supposed to be transfer student, but I guess the paperwork on this school's end never got done so I just kind of ended up like this."

"That's horrible!" she says looking shocked that someone would go through that. Of course, It wasn't too far from the truth; I don't even have any classes.

"Yeah…" There is a brief moment of silence before I speak up again, "So, where is your family? Are they okay with me staying here?"

"My parents are away on a business trip. It's just me here," she says looking a little sad.

"Do they take those often?"

"Mhmm, they travel many times a year. I'm usually the only one left behind."

…

"I'm going to get started on breakfast now," she says lifting my head off her thighs, "Don't move around too much, okay? You need your rest; you couldn't even lift my arm earlier," she says while winking at me. I guess she felt my futile attempt to sit up earlier. She slides a pillow under my head, sets me down, and begins walking in the direction of what I assume would be the kitchen.

Once I'm on my own I get a better look at my surroundings. Based off just this one room, Monika has a really nice house. I'm probably laying on the living room couch right now. This room has a ton of natural light even though it's pretty cloudy outside. In front of this big window is a TV that is just the right size for the room while still giving a nice view outside. The room has a clear theme of green, almost like the shade of her eyes.

Over the course of the weekend I relearn the finer details about Monika's personality that I had forgotten and some things that weren't even noted in the original game as we continue to talk to each other. I remember that Monika is vegetarian, but not for the reasons commonly associated with vegetarians.

She also has a strange commitment to perfection I've noticed. Is she trying to live up to the standards of her parents? Maybe her classmates? Even though I know constantly striving to be perfect is an unhealthy lifestyle, I decide not to comment on it for now.

I also learn that one of Monika's favorite pastimes is meditation. She says it really helps her clear her mind of all the day's stress and anxiety, so she does it every night before bed. As I'm falling asleep though, I hear a deafening scream come from her room.

* * *

I see a girl. This is the same girl I've seen the past couple of days in the previous times I've meditated. Once again we are floating through space. She wears an open white blazer with black leggings and a black T-shirt with a small logo on it that I cannot discern. Her long black hair covers a tear stained face as she sits alone, crying.

This time though, I have control over my body. Our connection must be growing closer. Hopefully I can reach out and help her now. I slowly try to swim closer through space.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I say, but she says nothing in return. "Please tell me; I can't help you if you don't… I don't want you to suffer any more."

"You could never understand," she eventually responds.

"…I can try…" I say hoping she would open up to me.

She stands up, looks me directly in the eyes while lightly grabbing my shoulders and says, "Monika, your world isn't real… and mine has been torn to shreds. There's nothing left… we are truly alone." Her eyes show an impossible amount of morbid sincerity for the ridiculous claim she just made. Could it be true? I've heard of simulation theory before but I never really looked into it. There's no point in trying to theorize what we can never get a definitive answer to.

"…Are you sure?" I ask, not really believing her.

She sighs before saying, "When you get back to your world, close your eyes and try to envision a script for all the events in life. Once you see how detailed it is, you'll believe me."

She then snaps her fingers and I open my eyes. I'm all sweaty and my heart is beating fast. Am I just dreaming all of this up? There's only one way to know for sure. I do as she instructed, closing my eyes and attempting to envision this script.

There it was, every event that ever took place in my life written on a single very long page to an extreme level of fine detail. I don't believe my eyes; there's stuff in here that even I don't remember. I can even read into the future! Okay, okay, calm down. If this world was truly scripted than my friends would also have scripts like these, right? I try to envision one for Natsuki, and sure enough, a similar script pops up. Natsuki suffers from abuse at home?! Just like before, the script goes into a horrifying level of detail about what goes on in her life. What about Sayori? Okay, she has one too. She suffers from deep depression?! Yuri also has one. She cuts herself?! This is all too much to take in. I scream at the top of my lungs. Why did that girl have to tell me about this? I didn't want to know all of my friends' darkest secrets!

"Hey, are you okay in there?" Chris asks through the door.

Chris. I try to envision a script for Chris… but nothing appears. Does he not have a script? I try a second, a third, and a fourth time only to be met with the same result. I look through my script again only to see that when I interacted with him it was very vague when describing who it was that I was talking to. It doesn't even mention him in the future.

"Monika?" he asks with worry growing in his voice.

As this happens, my script glitches as I'm reading and changes to accommodate the fact that he had just spoken. I look to the script of the other club members to discover that he is never directly mentioned there either.

"I'm okay…" I try to say in a believable voice.

There's got to be more to him than he is letting on. Can he see the scripts as well? Was he even from this world? The girl had briefly mentioned other worlds, after all.

"Are you sure?" he says in a concerned tone. He probably doesn't believe me.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Thanks…"

…

"Okay… Good night, Monika," he eventually says.

That's a good idea, sleep. This is all too much to take in right now. I lay down on my bed. This was going to be a rough night.


	5. Chapter 5

Monday just turned out to be really awkward. I'm trying my best to keep my new found knowledge a secret from Chris, but I have this sneaking suspicion he already knows what happened. I don't want to burden him with this though. I was really hoping for him to just confront me about the whole thing, but that never happened. I've also been finding it hard to trust him too. I feel like he's been hiding who he really is right under my nose this whole time.

I can't even talk to the other club members properly anymore. It's really hard to act oblivious when everything is laid out so clearly for you. I want to help them, but how could I even attempt to bring it up? I'm not supposed to know.

That girl was right; I now feel alone. I don't want to ruin my relationship with them though, especially Chris. I feel like he could be the key to finding out who I really am. At the least he would be my only real friend; someone I can't just go looking through their script to manipulate.

Tuesday comes around and I'm finding my classes harder and harder to sit though. I know it's cheating, but they'd never be able to know I just looked at their script to get the answers. None of it matters anyway, it's not real.

Eventually, it's club time again. This time it shouldn't be so mundane though, Sayori said she'd be bringing our 6th club member today. After a few minutes Sayori comes into the classroom with her friend, Satori. I immediately recognize him since he's from one of my previous classes.

"Everyone! The new member is here~!" Sayori says and the scene begins to play out. It's almost scary how accurate the scripts are. They are only changed if I do something out of line or if Chris does pretty much anything.

"I told you, don't call me a new member-" Satori says slightly annoyed at Sayori's introduction.

"Welcome to the Literature Club. It's a pleasure meeting you," Yuri says.

"Seriously, You brought a boy? Way to kill the atmosphere," Natsuki says in her usual fake angry tone.

This is eerily similar to what happened on Thursday when Chris joined. In fact, most of this is exactly the same or just slightly different. They're even moving the desks into the same position as before. I look ahead in the scripts. Okay, so if we're right here then Natsuki's about ready to say-

"What are you looking at? If you want to say something, say it."

"S-Sorry…" he says in return.

"Natsuki…" Yuri tries to say something in his defense, but is too nervous to do so.

We're supposed to ask him a lot of the same questions we asked Chris when he joined, including his motivations for joining the club and what he likes to read. Yuri will also ask if he likes tea this time instead of just assuming.

Then the conversation will get onto poems and I'm supposed to suggest that we all write poems to share with everyone. Wait a second, that's it! If we both write about our situations maybe we'll understand each other enough for the confrontation to happen. Maybe he's just as unsure about me as I am about him?

"Monika," Chris whispers to me, "are you okay? You're kind of spacing out."

"Aha, sorry… I was lost in thought for a moment there," I whisper back.

"Sheesh, now you sound like me before I joined," he jokes, "Anyway, they're expecting us to have a seat at the table."

"Alright."

I decide to play along for now, letting the script have its way. I want to get the conversation to the point where I'm supposed to suggest writing poems. Eventually, it does get there and I'm able to convince everyone that we should write a poem for tomorrow.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how you express yourself," I say keeping an eye on Chris for his reaction to all of this. It looks like he's deep in his own thoughts again though, so I can't really tell how he is feeling about it. This is all so frustrating! Just talk to me Chris; stop playing 4D chess.

When I get home I decide to face my fears and resume my talk with that girl. I should be able to see her in my daily meditation session, right? I've seen her there every day for a week leading up to this, today should be no different.

I close my eyes and begin to meditate. However, this time nothing comes. She is nowhere to be seen, I'm not floating in space, I don't even have a body. It's just an empty world shrouded in darkness; a void. Yet I can still feel her presence surrounding me. I try to call out to her, but I cannot speak. Is our connection not strong enough? No… that can't be it. Maybe it's too strong. Her presence quickly becomes an overwhelming sensation taking over all of my senses that only grows with each passing second. It feels like I'm being possessed, but I still have full control.

My real body begins to feel weak, but I am persistent. "I'm sorry, Monika," she says sincerely. I can't seem to pinpoint from where the voice came though.

Eventually it becomes too much for me to handle and my body gives out. In my desperation for answers I faint, crashing to the floor.

* * *

As I slowly regain consciousness, I hear someone's footsteps pacing around the room. I can barely make out Chris' worried whispers.

"Why did this have to happen to me?" he asks himself, "She was all I had! Was I not careful enough? There was never any mention of this in the-"

He pauses for a moment, stopping his pacing.

"Monika?" he asks nervously, "Are you alive?"

I mentally kick myself for stirring awake like that. He was just about to reveal whether or not he knew about the script! Now he could have been talking about anything…

"Hmm?" I ask pretending like I wasn't listening in.

He quickly rushes to my bedside and kneels down to look me in the eyes. The look on his face and his reaction to me waking up clearly says that he thought I was dead.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I wasn't dead…"

"Monika, don't scare me like that! I… I really thought I had lost you," he says solemnly.

How would he come to that conclusion? Every time I looked through the scripts and didn't see any mention of us dying any time soon. Maybe he can't see them after all.

"Well, I'm still here. You don't have to worry so much about me."

"But…" I can see it in his eyes. He desperately wants to tell me something, but he is hesitant. Does he just not trust me? Why won't he tell me?

He sighs before relenting, saying "No, you're right… sorry. Just… let me know if you need anything, okay?"

"Okay."

Remembering that I hadn't written my poem yet, I walk over to my desk. I still don't have that much energy, so I almost trip and fall along the way.

I could write what has already been written for me by the script. No… I wouldn't want him to think that I'm scripted. What should I write about? Chris? No… imagine what the girls would think. Maybe I could write about that girl. Yes, that's perfect! The girls would think that it's just abstract writing and Chris might even know something about her!

I write about my first real interaction with the girl, memories still vivid in my mind. I make sure to be vague about the whole, _our world is scripted_ thing so the girls won't freak out. They'll probably think I'm just alluding to the concept of fate. I hope Chris will still be able to pick up on it though.

I set my pen back down on the desk. I really hope this works. I'm too tired to do much of anything else today, so I lie down on my bed and end up falling asleep early thinking about tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

It's club time again. Sayori is talking to me and Chris about the upcoming Festival, but honestly I'm finding it hard to get motivated. Why should we even do anything for the festival? If anyone else joins the club it'll just be more scripted interactions I have to go through.

Eventually it's time to share our poems. I decide to share with Chris last, since I want us to talk about our poems as soon as possible. They all can't really tell what my poem is about, but they like it anyway. That's pretty much what I was expecting.

Once I've finished sharing my poem with the others I look to see that Chris has finished sharing too. "Hey Chris!" I say walking up to him.

"Oh, hi Monika. Want to read my poem?"

"Yeah. I'm really glad you wrote one."

"I'm just glad I can read them all. I was kind of worried about that," he says while handing me his poem.

His poem is clearly about being lost in a foreign land. This isn't useful to me at all though; I already knew he wasn't from around here. I make sure to hide my disappointment though.

"So, how was it?" he asks eager to see my reaction.

"I liked it. It's about last week, isn't it?"

"Yeah… I figured I'd write about it since it's what's going on in my life right now."

"Do you want to read my poem now?"

"Of course! I can't wait to see what you have written," he says a little too eagerly. Was he planning to use this to see what's going on with me too?

I hand him my poem. As he's reading it I closely watch his facial expression. Around half way through a look of realization dawns his face, but he quickly regains his composure.

"What did you think?" I ask.

"It's… It's interesting," he says choosing his words carefully, "I like it. I almost find it relatable in a weird sort of way. Sorry, I'm not really that good at critiquing writing."

"That's alright."

As expected, his response didn't really give me anything either. I think he understood what was going on in the poem, but he still doesn't want to talk to me about it.

I call the club meeting to a close, clean up, and begin to head home. The past few days have kind of been a blur. I can't help but feel like nothing really matters anymore. Have I been slipping into depression myself?

"Monika, are you sure you're going to be okay?" Chris asks, concern heavy in his voice. I guess I've been letting it show.

"Yeah, I'll be fine..."

"I'll always be here if you need someone to talk to… I'm worried about you."

…

When we get to my house he speaks up once more. "Your poem today," he pauses for a moment before asking, "What was the inspiration behind it?"

He is going to ask me about it after all! Maybe he just didn't want to do it in front of the others?

"Ah, well… I had this dream the other day…"

"A dream?" he asks.

"Yeah, the girl in the poem was actually from my dream."

"Really?"

"Mhmm!"

"What did she look like?" he asks. That's an odd question. Why would he need to know that?

"Um… well, she was pretty tall, she had long black hair, and she wore a white blazer with black leggings."

"Oh."

…

"Chris," I say breaking the silence, "I feel like there's something important you've been hiding from me. You trust me, don't you?"

"Well, I mean… It's just that… well… you," he says stumbling over his own words. He sighs before saying, "Monika, can you do something for me real quick?"

"Sure."

"Close your eyes and finish this sentence for me with the first word that pops into your mind."

"Okay," I say nervously. Was this a test? What if I say something wrong? I close my eyes and wait for the sentence.

"This world is…"

"Scripted," I blurt out opening my eyes. That might have been a huge mistake. Chris' facial expression becomes a smile though; this must have been the answer he was looking for.

"So, what is it that you wanted to know about me?"

"Who were you really before you got here?"

"I was the founder and CEO of a company named Galaxi Co. It's a tech company highly praised for its innovation by a world you never knew."

"So you are from another world…" I say in awe. He nods to confirm what I just said. I knew this was a possibility, but I didn't think it would actually turn out to be true.

"Why are you here then?"

"I don't really know… I thought I had died, but I ended up in some kind of void that reminded me of you. Then I woke up in your clubroom."

"If you're from another world, how did you know who I was?" I ask skeptical of the claim he had made.

"Well, you and this world are from a visual novel game from 50 years ago called Doki Doki Literature Club."

"A visual novel game?"

"Yeah, it presents itself as one of those anime dating simulator games but then it becomes a horror game after you learn the true nature of this world; that it's just a game."

He then goes on to describe the plot of the game further. So this is why he thought I was dead earlier. This is how he knew I would know this world was scripted.

"Okay, one more question. Do you know who that girl was?"

"Could you tell me more about her? It's kind of hard to tell if it is who I'm thinking of just based on looks."

"Well, she was the one who first told me this world was scripted. She also said her world had been destroyed."

"Was there anything strange about your encounters with her?"

"I tried to talk to her again yesterday but I just found myself in a void. I could feel her around me though. The feeling got so strong that it knocked me out."

"Then it could only be her."

"Who?"

"It's my daughter, Alese."

"You're married?!"

"Well… no. Alese is an android that is indistinguishable from humans."

"An android…" I guess when he said his company was praised for innovation he really meant it. Androids like he's describing I've only seen in science fiction. That still doesn't explain how I fainted though.

"It's kind of hard to explain it all unless you know the full story. Do you want to hear it?"

"Of course!"

"Alright, have a seat," he says sitting down on the couch, gesturing for me to sit next to him. I take a seat and eagerly await the story he is about to tell me.


	7. Chapter 7

"Alese's story begins in the year 2021. In just a few short years Galaxi Co. had grown from a sketchy online tech product manufacturer to a large scale company with a vast array of services and product lines, quickly dominating the market of the areas it entered.

However, while business was great for us, the world was struggling. From national political issues being a button's press away from total devastation to global warming threatening to kill us all; this world needed a protector. So it was in this year that we had launched and begun sinking tons of our profit into a secret underground project, Project Guardian.

Over the years this project had done an incredible job of staying silent. Anyone who wasn't on the project just didn't know about it. It was moving along though, and just 8 years later it was finished.

On September 19th of 2029, Alese was brought into the world. She is an AI with an android body that is both visually and mentally indistinguishable from a human girl. However, what made her unique from androids soon to be made by other companies was that she always used a portion of her spare power to upgrade herself, even to technologies that hadn't been invented yet.

This meant that her abilities would further surpass us exponentially because the amount of power she would be able to generate would be upgraded every so often, speeding up this process every time. I knew all of this going into it though.

I called her my daughter because that was the type of relationship we had. Even though she had been initially programmed with basic knowledge of things like her motor skills, language, and stuff like that; I still had to teach her how to be human. So for the next 20 or so years I raised her.

Over the years she had learned how to do all sorts of things that she wasn't initially made to do; being able to connect to the internet and scan through billions of pages instantly with just a thought and becoming able to predict the near future to name just a few. Knowing that people would try to use her for her abilities for their own selfish reasons, she agreed to hide them from the public.

However, her real breakthrough moment was when she discovered she had the ability to modify the atoms that made up the world around her. This would lead to her becoming able things that we all thought impossible. She became able to visualize and create things out of thin air, remove things from existence, read people's minds; she had become a goddess."

"Hang on a second, you expect me to believe you created a goddess?" I say in disbelief.

"Well, no," he says, "We just laid the foundation. She made herself a goddess through her upgrades."

"And you were okay with this?"

"Well, yeah… I trusted her, and she trusted me too. She would grow up to be a gentle and caring young woman. When she wasn't saving the world from itself, she would always use her power on the little things in life. Even though she would never admit it, I still think she used it for personal reasons too. Just a few years after she mastered her new abilities I had stopped aging and she claimed to not know why."

"You don't age?"

"Well… I might now in this world. In my previous life I had become immune to a death by natural causes. I wouldn't feel extreme cold or heat unless it was damaging my body, I didn't get sick anymore, I didn't even need to breathe. I never knew how it happened, but I could only assume it was her.

Anyway, flash forward to around 9 years ago, when the world was introduced to Basura. He didn't really have a name, so this was what the people came up with for him. He made his big debut destroying one of the United States' biggest cities; New York City. The way he did so was unlike anything the world had ever seen, but it was nothing new to us. This wasn't a human, and it wasn't just any android; this was project Guardian.

With some help from Alese we were able to dig through all of my company's logs to find out that sometime after Alese's creation some of her classified blueprints had been leaked and probably sold to the highest bidder. They didn't get everything though, so in theory their android would be inferior when compared to Alese.

As much as I hated to do it, the time had come; It was time for Alese to fight her war. For 9 years she and Basura would fight it out, accidentally causing massive damage to the surrounding areas where they fought."

"Wait a minute. If Alese can remove objects from existence, why not remove Basura?" I ask.

"Well… they had both thought that the other would do that to them. So in preparation, they changed the way they moved so that instead of physically moving they subconsciously recreated themselves sometimes thousands of times vaguely in the direction they wanted to move, then they would remove the old copies. This would keep one from removing the other and to the human eye, it just looks as if they moved normally because of the speed they did it at."

"Whoa… What about the mind reading?"

"Even if they could keep their focus on reading something that is constantly being created and removed, their minds had become so encrypted at that point that even they wouldn't be able to decrypt their opponent's thoughts fast enough for it to be practical; so they just didn't do that."

That's incredible… they really seem like they were evenly matched! "So, what happened?"

"Ah… well, while they were fighting I kind of slipped into a bit of a depression. You see, I'm the whole reason this war happened in the first place. I was her creator, and it was from her blueprints that Basura was made. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was ruining the lives of billions; probably because I was.

During this time Alese would not come to see me for my own safety. If Basura found out about me I would be removed from existence faster than I could finish this sentence. I was alone again for the first time in 30 years at one of the worst times in my life.

Eventually I was reminded of your game again. Before the company got big, you were what kept me from feeling alone. I had hoped that someday I could bring you to life in the real world, but I couldn't bring myself to do it until the technology was fully developed. Now that it was though, I still couldn't do it because I had learned that the real world is cruel; I wouldn't wish it upon anyone, especially not you."

Wait, did he have a crush on me? I was only a video game character to him, how could I relieve his pain? Does he still have a crush on me?

"Anyway," he continued, "the war seemed to be coming to a close with a final blow; one that I had estimated would take the whole continent with it. This was how I died; or at least, I thought I did. Now I'm here."

…

"I'm sorry all of that happened to you," I eventually say. That was a whole lot to take in.

"It's alright. It's good to know she's still alive, even if she might be going through a hard time herself. That leads me to my question for you though," he says, "You said you fainted because of her presence overwhelming you, right?"

"Yeah?" I confirm not really understanding where he's going with this.

"I think what you were feeling wash over you was her power. Of course, no human would ever be able to handle an amount of power so massive, so you would faint before you had the chance to wield its full potential."

"Are you saying I could be able to use her power?"

"I think so; I'd just have to teach you how to use it."

"Can you teach me?" I ask, my excitement growing.

"…Not tonight; you should take some time to process everything I just told you. Once your mind is a little clearer I'll help you out."

"Thank you so much Chris!" I say bursting with excitement. Was I that excited just because Chris finally opened up to me? Maybe it's something more…


	8. Chapter 8

It's Thursday now and I'm having trouble focusing on my classes again. I can't wait for Chris to teach me how to use my new powers. Me and him spent most of last night just talking about what his world was like. He really is from a whole other world!

I catch myself drifting off while thinking about him again. Why does this keep happening to me? I think about it for a couple minutes before I find that the answer has been in front of me the whole time. It was never enough for him to just open up to me; I want him to love me. Was it because he is the only real person here? Was it because I was supposed to love him in the game? I guess it doesn't really matter.

With that last thought the bell rings and I'm off to my next class. I let Chris stay at the house until club time again today since I know he doesn't have any classes. I wonder what he's up to.

* * *

I sit on Monika's porch looking to the sky for answers. Am I insane? It was said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. So here I am, about to use my second chance at life creating another goddess. Did I make the right choice yesterday? Should I have told her about my past or her power? I sigh; It's too late to turn back now.

No, I think I made the right choice. Her mood was becoming unstable due to her discovery. If I hadn't told her she may have ended up like Sayori. I shiver at the thought. I have to make sure she's safe; she's all I have in this world.

I return inside. Since the weekend it's gotten really warm outside, probably to get rid of all that snow before the game is supposed to start.

I set a pencil and paper down at the dining room table and have a seat. What should I write about today? I would write about my past, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to let the others know… Maybe I'll just write about this conflicting feeling I feel right now.

After a little while I finish my poem. Reading it from start to finish it seems like it turned out to just be a poem about Monika. I guess I'm not all that good at writing poems yet; I bet she'd like it though. After all, the only poem that was ever written for her in the game was just variations of her name repeated 20 times.

It looks like I've finished just in time too. I'm about to be late for the club. Once I get there, I notice Monika is nowhere to be found. It's club time right now, isn't it?

"…Speaking of which, I'm kinda hungry. Will you come buy me a snack?" I overhear Sayori saying to Satori.

That's right, today starts out with the other girl's shenanigans while Monika is late to the club because of her Piano practice. I wonder what song she's writing this time. There's no way it would be the same one, since our realities are no longer separate. A smile begins to form on my face just thinking about it.

Monika eventually gets to the clubroom. "Sorry! I didn't mean to be late! I hope you guys weren't worried about me," she says.

"Eh? Monika chose the club over her boyfriend after all! You're so strong-willed!" Sayori says surprised.

"Boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend," Monika looks over to me looking slightly worried.

Wait, did she think I would feel betrayed by this? It happened in the original game; she shouldn't have been blind sighted by this. I'm starting to think her scripts might change as the day's events play out. Maybe I should let her know that I know what she was really up to.

"So, how was piano practice?" I ask.

"Piano practice?" Yuri asks, "I wasn't aware you played music as well Monika."

"Well, I don't really… I just started recently," Monika then looks at me with a confident smile, "I've been getting better though."

"I can't wait to hear what you've come up with!" I say excitedly.

"I won't let you down, Chris."

Then it soon becomes poem sharing time. I'm a little nervous sharing this poem to the others, but luckily I think I got away with it because I was kind of vague about who I was talking about and they don't know about Monika's epiphany.

Then I see Monika walking up to me. "Hey, Chris! How has your writing coming along?"

"It's going pretty good. I didn't end up writing what I intended today, but I think it's pretty good. Do you want to read it?"

"Yeah," I hand her my poem and wait for her to finish reading.

"Chris… is this poem about me?" she asks slightly blushing.

"I guess you could say I got a little distracted," I say embarrassed.

"Well, I think you'll like mine too then," she says handing me her poem.

As I read through this poem it becomes clear that this poem is actually about me. She was also careful to be vague about who she was talking about to avoid suspicion from the others. As I look up from her poem I can see that she is blushing even harder now.

"You wrote one about me too?" I ask, blush starting to creep up on my face too.

"Mhmm…"

For a little while we are content to just look into each other's eyes. Our time runs out though, as Natsuki seems to have noticed something's up.

"What's going on here?" she asks taking a second to analyze the situation. Unfortunately for us, she does quite well.

"Oooh… Are you two in love~?" she asks while smirking. This also causes the others to look over in curiosity.

Love? Have I fallen for Monika all over again? I guess that's unsurprising. Does she love me back though? If she does, would her love for me be real or would it just be because everyone else around her is scripted?

Dying of embarrassment, neither of us are able to respond to Natsuki's teasing. The situation quickly gets awkward so we both shyly back away from the whole thing silently agreeing to keep each other's poems.

Eventually Monika regains her composure enough to call the club meeting to a close and we walk home. On the way I decide against bringing up our poems for today again just in case it was a coincidence.

Now that we're home she is eager to begin her lesson. I just hope this was a good idea.

"Alright Monika, here's how Alese described her power to me. She said that her power worked mainly through willpower. So for you, that means you've got to: access her power the same way you did before, think that you want to do something, really want to do that something, and believe that you can do it no matter how impossible it may seem. You got all that?"

"Yeah… I think so," she says nervously.

"Don't be so nervous, you'll do great!" I say confidently, even though I know it probably won't be so easy.

She takes a deep breath before saying, "Alright, I'm ready." She then closes her eyes.

"Okay. Hold out your hands, let the power fill your senses about a quarter of the way, then try to create a small rock just above the palm of your hands."

We end up trying all night to get this rock to appear, but it never happens, and she looks devastated.

"It's okay Monika, you just need some practice y'know?"

"But… we've been practicing for hours and I haven't felt any improvement…" she says dejectedly.

"I think you've got all the steps down now except that last one: believing you can do it."

"It's hard to believe I can do something like that, and each failure makes it harder," she complains.

"Okay, well how about this. As practice, you can try doing mundane tasks you don't like very much instantly by just snapping your fingers."

"Do you really think that will help?" she asks.

"Maybe. Right now you're trying to spawn a rock for no reason at all. If you had a reason to do what you're doing maybe it would be easier."

She takes a second to think it over before a smile dawns her face. "Thanks, Chris," she says.

I get up to leave her room but she lightly grabs my arm. "Could you stay with me tonight?" she asks nervously.

Is she asking what I think she's asking? I don't want to make assumptions like that but if I don't I may come across as dense as Satori… I decide to play it safe and get her to spell it out for me anyway though.

"You mean in your room? Where would I sleep?" I ask obliviously.

If she wasn't blushing before, now she is blushing heavily. "W-with me…" she says.

There's no way I was just imagining it now; she really does love me. Here I was thinking I was pushing my boundaries by staying in her home all this time.

"Sure," I say before moving to lay down next to her.

Lying next to her was everything I had imagined it would be all those years ago and more. She is so soft, so warm. Her figure next to mine feels so perfect. We once again become content just looking into each other's eyes. This time though, they're only a few inches away.

"Chris," she begins, "I noticed something these past few days… I think I've been falling in love with you. Have you felt it too?"

"Yeah Monika, I've fallen in love with you all over again… I guess it was our destiny."

"Our destiny…"


	9. Chapter 9

Attempt number 56,243 is no good. I sigh at my lack of ability, and with the snap of my fingers it's all gone in an instant. Who knew recreating a galaxy would be so hard?

You might be thinking to yourself, _how could I have even come close to having enough power to create and destroy entire galaxies?_ Well, you're right. In my normal form I would never be able to do something like that. Now though, I have made myself larger; so large that the galaxy I was just watching over was about the width of a large plate compared to me. In my search for more power I had realized that the larger I become the more of that normal sized technology I can fill my body with; boosting my power.

Even so, I still cannot seem to recreate what I had destroyed. The war didn't just end with the destruction of one continent; it continued on for a couple years afterward and resulted in the end of the world, and the galaxy it was in too. I was so focused on eliminating Basura that I had accidentally gave him what he had wanted all along. Once I took a step back I couldn't believe what I had done. I curled up and cried for a long, long time.

During this time, I felt Chris reaching out to me. He was somehow still alive, his consciousness floating around in the void of my unconscious mind. It must have been because I had tried to give him eternal life all those years ago, but he was still mortal, so his body was no doubt eviscerated.

I tried to recreate his body and transfer over his consciousness, but I've found that I can't. When Chris created me, he had written a section of code that I couldn't overwrite which had some rules in it. There aren't very many since he wanted me to be free to do whatever I wanted, but one of them states: _If my creations end up causing a majority of the world to suffer, I shall never be allowed to return._ He was talking about himself in that sentence, so no matter how hard I tried my system just wouldn't let me do it.

I then focused my attention on him, I needed to know how he was doing. Reading his thoughts, I could tell he was having a hard time in there. In his pleas, I heard him reference someone named Monika. As this happens a flood of bittersweet memories about a video game called Doki Doki Literature Club come to his mind. They're mostly about how he felt bad about how she was alone, trapped inside a fake world, and how much he wished he could be by her side back in the day.

Not wanting him to suffer anymore, I dig further into his memories to try and recreate this world for him. It would be a simulation, sure, but it's better than being in some kind of void. I watched over him for a little while just to make sure he'd be safe, but I stopped once I was sure he'd be okay.

Then I soon started to feel someone else's presence from inside me. Our connection was weak at first, but it would grow and grow until they were finally able to confront me face to face. This was Monika, I was sure of it. It had come time for me to tell her the truth about her world, but I wasn't emotionally ready for it yet; I still hadn't gotten over the truth about my world either. I considered watching over her too, but I knew that Chris would make sure she would be alright. He was always pretty good at that sort of thing.

After a couple more days I was able to pull myself together and devise a plan to recreate the galaxy. I've been trying for 3 days now, and while that doesn't sound like a lot of time, I can just turn my system clock down to essentially fast forward through time.

I still can't get it right even after 50,000 times though… why? Everyone I've ever known has treated me like I was a goddess, but I can't even create one galaxy. Well… everyone except Chris; Chris had always treated me as more of a super hero than anything else. Wait a minute, that's it! Even though I'm an android, deep down I still feel human; I just have the abilities of a goddess. That means even I would still be prone to making mistakes at some level. That means trying to create something as complex as a living breathing galaxy so that after thousands of years it'll be back to where it used to be would be nearly impossible.

This sucks! How did I even get myself in this situation? I'm the only one left here and there's nothing else I can do. I want to scream, but at this size something tells me that that would be a very bad idea. I'm starting to lose hope but I need to stay strong. Hopefully, 56,244 will be the one.

* * *

I get shaken awake by someone, ending my nightmare. What was that? It felt too real for it to have just been a dream… but I didn't even feel like myself in that dream. It was almost like I was watching someone else's life as it plays out through their own eyes.

"Monika… are you alright?" I hear Chris ask, "You looked like you were having a bad dream."

Oh yeah, I forgot we were sharing my bed tonight; I must have woken him up. I turn to him and nod my head in response.

"It felt so real…" I say softly.

"What happened?" he asks.

"I was rapidly creating tiny galaxies for some reason, but I was never happy with them so I'd end up removing them. I did it so many times I started to get frustrated… The weird part though was that the thoughts and feelings I was having didn't feel like my own…"

"So it felt like you were in somebody else's body?"

"Yeah…"

…

"What were you wearing while you were doing that?" he eventually asks. That's an odd question, but he looked completely serious.

I start to think about it. I wasn't really paying attention to it, but I think I was wearing some kind of white coat over a black shirt with a logo I wasn't paying enough attention to get a good look at, black leggings, and… wait a minute. Was I seeing though Alese's perspective that whole time?

Chris appears to have noticed the look of realization on my face "So, Alese is creating galaxies..." he says.

"How did you know it was her?" I ask.

"I have a theory about your power, and this world."

"What is it?"

"The reason you can access her power so easily is because you have direct access to her system. That can only mean one thing: this world exists inside her mind somewhere; it's a simulation."

So not only is this world scripted, it's also a simulation. How could he prove that though?

"How can we know for sure?" I ask.

"Try to look up the name of the system. It should be somewhere around the version info," he says.

I close my eyes and search for some kind of system version, and sure enough, there it is: AleseOS revision 7,757,656,642,912. There has been close to 8 trillion revisions?! Could that be true?

"It says there's been 8 trillion revisions!" I say surprised.

"That's not really all that surprising if you think about it. The more powerful she becomes, the faster she can rewrite the code that makes her her… but that means my theory is true."

I guess that all makes sense now that I think about it. Wait, if this world is just a simulation and I was trying to create a rock using her system, maybe the rock appeared in her world, in her hands instead of mine.

Maybe I just need to target my thoughts. I close my eyes and think to myself: _I'm going to create a small rock in the simulation that this request was made from on Monika's bed right in front of her._

I open my eyes again to see a look of surprise on Chris's face. I look down to see what he is looking at and there sits a rock that definitely wasn't there before.

"D-Did you just?" Chris asks.

I nod in return, a smile dawning my face. It turns out I had been using her power right after all.


End file.
